Türkiye and Italy reach the semis in Riga, contenders for third place are getting their calculators ready

On the penultimate day of the #EuroVolleyU18W pool stage in Riga, Türkiye and Italy successfully took care of business, thereby securing their spots in the semi-finals with their sixth consecutive victories in as many matches. The two pool leaders will face each other on Thursday to battle for the top spot ahead of the decisive matches in the Latvian capital. Meanwhile, complex calculations will be required to determine which of three strong contenders will claim third place and a ticket to the World Championship.

The young Yellow Tigers from Belgium roared into Day 6, defeating Poland in straight sets in a crucial match for third place in the Riga pool. In each set, they staged a comeback and clinched victory in a tense finish, thanks to solid defence and scoring contributions from Ella Joosen (13), Ayiana Hall (12) and Ana Van den Spiegel (10). Belgium cruised to a 3-0 (25-23, 25-23, 25-22) win and marked their third consecutive win following a weak start to the tournament that saw them suffer three losses.
Belgium head coach Yorick Vande Velde: “The key moments were in the middle of each set. Poland had the upper hand early on, but our girls switched their minds, cut down on errors, and made good block-defence work, allowing us to start scoring on every play. I believe it came down to the mental readiness to fight in every set, as we needed a 3-0 win to achieve our ambitions. This is a group of fighters, who never give up. Our first ambition is to have a good tournament here and beat some top opponent, like Poland. The second ambition, if we do everything right, is to qualify for the World Championship by finishing among the top six teams in this tournament. We must not forget that we still have a match tomorrow that we need to win. We will have to fight again, and in the end, we might even need to count every single point to secure a spot at the World Championship. We were aware of how challenging the schedule was and that there was a possibility of starting the tournament with three losses. It was important not to dwell on that and to stay fresh for the decisive matches, and here we are.”

Following this success, Belgium briefly held the upper hand in the battle for third place, but Spain took a set against Italy and moved back ahead of their rivals only a few hours later. In fact, the Spaniards came very close to securing a point and perhaps even challenging for the win against one of the tournament favourites. However, they failed to hold their lead late in the second set and the Italian team wasted no time capitalising on the opportunity to win the match 3-1 (20-25, 26-24, 25-16, 25-21).
“It feels a bit stressful, given how the game unfolded, but I am happy we managed to win. It was our toughest match so far, as Spain gave us a lot of trouble. We could not quite relax enough to play our best game. That means we need to prepare even better for the next match against Türkiye, it will be even harder and full of emotion,” said Lisa Dharma Monari Gamba, as she turned her focus to Thursday’s clash between the group leaders.

Türkiye secured their sixth victory by defeating Iceland 3-0 (25-12, 25-10, 25-12), while in the day’s final match, the Czech team took their second win from the hosts Latvia 3-1 (25-19, 21-25, 25-13, 25-12).

A battle for the pole position ahead of the semi-finals will kick off the final day of the pool stage in Riga. Subsequently, Spain, Belgium, and Poland will vie for third place in a contest played out across separate matches, as some good mathematic skills may be required, determining the final ranking of teams with nearly identical records in the standings currently.